lunedì 29 gennaio 2018

Best Actress in a Leading Role 2017: Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird

Saoirse Ronan received her third Oscar nomination for her performance as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson in Lady Bird.


Lady Bird is a wonderful movie about the life of a seventeen-year-old girl in Sacramento during her last year of high school. Greta Gerwig deserves a lot of credit for making Lady Bird such a special experience in spite of its not so original premise. What makes Lady Bird stand out among other coming of age movies is the sincerity of the screenplay: she never falls for the usual tropes of the genre and manages to flesh out her characters with remarkable empathy and delicacy. In fact, what I especially loved about this movie is the realism of its characters and the tenderness with which Gerwig characterizes them: even the least likeable feels real and at least to an extent somewhat relatable and honestly I'd be interested in seeing a spin-off about any of them. That's a testament to the greatness of Gerwig's screenplay who should walk away with the Oscar for her effort in writing. Overall, it's a charming, funny and touching experience for which I have a great fondness.

Saoirse Ronan is one of my favorite contemporary actresses: she has such a fascinating, expressive face and at only 23 years old she has already proved an impressive versatility. Her two previous Oscar nominated performance prove that she's an incredibly skilled performer in dramatic roles and I was eager to see her take a more comedic role (she was fine at deadpan in The Grand Budapest Hotel but she didn't get a whole lot to do): unsurprisingly, she absolutely delivers in thar regard as well. The blend of her dramatic and comedic talents is what makes her performance in Lady Bird a very memorable and captivating piece of work that deservingly lead her to her third nomination. What's so impressive for such a young actress is her incredible confidence on-screen: her performance is incredibly assured and so perfectly attuned to the atmosphere of the movie and Greta Gerwig's style in writing and direction. She has a clear understanding not only of the role but also of the tone of the story itself.

Christine is actually a very challenging character as she could have come across as a bit obnoxious in the hands of a lesser actress - she's often quite arrogant and is not always nice to her parents or her best friend. If Christine ends up being such a loveable character is because Ronan manages to bring such a great deal of charm to her performance and her spontaneous energy makes her character irresistibly endearing. That doesn't mean she glosses over her character's least likeable traits: it means instead that she manages to portray them in a relatable way and I think that pretty much anyone can identify with the character at certain instances over the course of the movie. She captures so well the unpredictability of being seventeen, where at times you feel super confident and at others you're completely vulnerable and full of uncertainties regarding the future. It's easy to identify with Christine as she feels suffocated by the small town she lives in even though she naturally feels attached to it; and it's easy to identify to her ambitions regarding her university and the future in general. The strength of Ronan's performance is in her ability to make you see yourself inside the character. And of course in her ability to sell her lines like a pro: she has an absolutely brilliant comedic timing and she can elicit a laugh with her facial expressions alone - she's truly hilarious in this film and what's especially remarkable is that it feels completely effortless from her.

Lady Bird has one of the strongest ensembles of the year, and Saoirse Ronan does a fantastic job at working with her co-stars and realizing so well the relationships between Christine and each of them. She has an amazing chemistry with Beanie Feldstein (great), who plays her best friend Julie: the two of them are just wonderful in their scenes together creating such a believable and moving friendship. Over the course of the movie, their friendship have its ups and downs and the two actresses nail every emotional beat climaxing with their reconciliation before the prom which is one of the most heartwarming moments of the movie. She is also great in her scenes with her two love interest of the movie: Danny (Lucas Hedges) and Kyle (Timothée Chalamet). In her scenes with the former, Ronan endearingly portrays the emotions and excitement of having their first crush (that scream after their first kiss is absolute perfection) and then she's quietly devastating when she catches Danny making out with another guy. The scene in which the two reconcile and she comforts him over his struggle with his sexuality is one of the movie's many touching moments. In her scenes with the latter, she is great at capturing that feeling of thinking you are important for a person when you're actually not: her heartbreak at realizing that he never had any serious intentions for her is relatable and moving.

Ronan's strongest scenes though are the ones she shares with the two actors playing her parents, Tracy Letts and Laurie Metcalf. Her scenes with Letts, who gives a lovely, underrated performance, are excellently acted on both ends and the two actors share a truly tender, heartwarming chemistry. And her scenes with Metcalf are pure dynamite: the two actresses are incredible at depicting the troubled but loving relationship between the two - they might not always be on the same wavelength and they certainly disagree on many things but that's perhaps what makes their tender moments all the more beautiful. Their heart-to-heart talk at the shop ("What if this is the best version?") is one of the movie's most emotionally resonant, quietly powerful moment. Another one of my favorite scenes  (I know, there are many) is the one in which Christine finds out of the pain she has caused to her parents with some careless phrases and gestures that suggests she feels shameful about her family and social position (which, to an extent, she does): it's a heartbreaking moment perfectly acted by all three actors and Ronan is extremely moving at portraying her character's guilt at realizing that she hurt them. I prefer not to spoil the very last scene of the movie, but I'll just say that Ronan ends her performance on a very beautiful note and nicely brings a closure to Christine's journey towards maturity.

This is an excellent performance from Saoirse Ronan who carries this wonderfully movie with impressive confidence and skill. She delivers a performance that is both extremely funny and emotionally powerful, but most of all it's relatable: it's easy to see yourself in Christine and that's due to both the brilliant writing and Ronan's remarkably realistic performance. Lovely work from a great actress.

5/5

8 commenti:

  1. Completely agree on this one too. This is turning out to be a dynamite year for best actress and its only going to get better from here.

    Thoughts/Ratings on the rest of the cast?

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. I'm glad we agree on Ronan's performance. I was initially going to give her a 4.5 but writing about her made me realize I much how I love this performance.

      Letts - 4 (He gets less to do than Metcalf but he still thrives with what he has. Letts is very endearing in the role as he brings such a great deal of warmth to his performance. Past that, I thought he was extremely moving at portraying his character's own plight in a very reserved but poignant fashion)

      Feldstein - 4 (I thought she had a very natural screen-presence and made for a very endearing sidekick to Ronan. She gives an entertaining performance and shares a terrific chemistry with her co-star but she is also very moving at portraying her character's realization that Christine is drifting away from her. When the two characters finally reconcile it's a truly special moment and that's also thanks to Feldstein's sweet little performance)

      Hedges - 3.5 (He does not have a lot of screen-time but I liked what he did with the role. I thought he was quite charming in a low-key fashion and his chemistry with Ronan in the beginning was actually quite sweet. Then I found him to be very moving in his big scene opposite Ronan, poignantly conveying his character's struggle to come out)

      Chalamet - 3.5 (Limited role but he makes the most out of it. I found Chalamet to be properly appealing and charming in the role while properly portraying a certain vapidness in his behavior. What I liked the most though is that Chalamet does not portray him as simply a douchebag but manages to make him a somewhat real person, especially in the few moments in which me mentions his father's condition)

      Henderson - 3 (I usually enjoy watching him on-screen in general and this is no exception. He doesn't get to do a whole lot here but I found him to be extremely enjoyable presence whenever he appeared)

      Smith - 3.5 (Another one I really enjoy watching on-screen in general. Smith is very good in her limited screen-time here as she nicely subverts the trope of the strict nun bringing a welcome warmth to her scenes with Ronan, especially their last one)

      Elimina
  2. Risposte
    1. It's truly a wonderful movie, I think you'll like very much.

      Elimina
  3. Outstanding performance and movie, even though I found the “leaving my best friend for the cool kids” part rather cliched, this is an otherwise perfect film.

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. I really liked everything about the movie. Regarding the scenes you mentioned, technically they are rather clichéd but they're so nicely acted by Ronan and Feldstein and written and directed with such sincerity by Gerwig they still work.

      Elimina
  4. I hadn't great expectations for this movie but i was hugely surprised; i saw it two times, on the first view i thought Ronan and Metcalf were great and the rest of the cast very good. But on my second view i like the movie even more because i enjoyed those little moments that seems secondary to the main plot, like Feldstein expression when she discovered that her teacher was married, or every single scene with Letts, his job interview scene with his son was so heartwarming. And i loved Metcalf performance too and i can't wait to read your review.

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. The job interview scene was so touching.

      I can't wait to review Metcalf.

      Elimina